SPECIES: Only wisdom endangered

Last month our nation celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Signed into law by President Nixon, it had unanimous support in the Senate and only three dissenting votes in the House. Imagine that level of support for non-human species in today’s Congress.

Unlikely, if not impossible. Forty years later, congressional tea party Republicans want to dismantle the law completely. Congress is also trying to remove ESA protections from species like wolves — forever. They’d rather see the animals managed by states like Idaho, where hunters and trappers kill them by the hundreds with our nifty guns, leg-hold traps and choking snares. Since wolves were removed from the ESA, thanks to a rider in a critical budget bill passed two and a half years ago and attached by our own Senator Jim Risch, here in Idaho we’ve already killed 800 wolves. Add in Montana and Wyoming and the total jumps to 2,000 wolves.

Then there’s barbarism. Like those folks living in Salmon who — with Governor Otter’s support — participated in a wolf-killing derby right after Christmas. Children were encouraged to join in the bloody fun. And now the Idaho Department of Fish and Game has superseded federal wilderness law to convince U.S. Forest Service officials to allow a taxpayer-hired trapper into the Frank Church Wilderness to eradicate entire packs of wolves that actually truly belong there. Got to get those elk numbers up, you know.

What used to be wise leadership has devolved into savagery.

JANE FRITZ

Sandpoint